Loving Homeschool

This has been a year of change for us. Oldest starting youth group stuff, youngest out of diapers. More freedom in teaching, more kids involved and active. A ton of fun. We have two in a musical theater class, and one about to start gymnastics, again. We start the day with breakfast and devotional time, followed by math, preschool and kindergarten, spelling/writing, PE, language arts, lunch, chores, bible time, storytime, KONOS unit studies, and then electives. KONOS has made life so much easier teaching all the kids at once on the same topic using many disciplines. Plus it is a fun way to learn. I don't know if Jacob will get to continue it with us when he hits high school, but we will see. He may have to go independent for credit purposes, but that will be fine, too! Maybe we can integrate it all.

September Learning Fun

Field trip to see the Herald Banner newspaper. this is the printing press running papers.

Here are the girls posing at the paper.

Emily was entering the next days comics.

Now Jacob is entering the next days comics.

Our KONOS unit on kings and queens involved making crowns......

and constructing a castle...........................

which began as a pile of boxes and toilet paper tubes........

and some role playing with paper castles, knights and horses!

But it all began with library book research!

And tomorrow it will culminate in a medieval feast. We made decorations and satin robes and got some "armor" too. Our swords will strongly resemble lightsabers, and the food will be eaten without utensils. We will have roasted meat, crusty bread, wassail, mini cakes and roasted potatoes. I will get some photos of that up this weekend!

School Started!

This is a moth that Clay caught and we observed for a while. it was about 3 inches long! Then we caught a couple of geckos and a frog and a few butterflies!

Inspired by the World Record books from the library, Jacob made the world's smallest pizza--it was 5mm X 7mm.

This is art class after viewing the AtelierArt dvd.

This is math class--first class after devo time.

Lego time. Jacob even built a lego tower that was 6 ft 4 inches high!

Pe--scooters and bike riding after indoor exercises.

Kimberly being a camera ham!

School is fabulous! Coming soon: photos from studying Kings and Queens!

children's museum in tyler

Getting Behind on Blogging

Well, I really do have some cute pictures to post, but I am on the wrong computer to do that. We have been incredibly busy, but in a good way. Life has been all about family and friends and the Lord. We took the kids to all kinds of activities in late August and then began the homeschool year on the 24th. Then we held our live registration for Friday co-op. that was so blessed! It was fabulous! We are going to have a great semester! Now we are falling into a good routine and even getting the kids involved in some activities again. I am so glad to be done with board meetings and monthly meetings. What a stress relief! But we are loving the new board of our co-op and already have field trips planned and book orders set up. Stacy did a fantastic job on our website, too! Also been visiting nursing homes and getting more involved in the bible classes.
Most of all we are just enjoying the homeschooling lifestyle and trying to get used to the idea that our oldest is now eligible for youth group activities! Yikes! My baby is growing up, but he is such a great boy! I am so proud of the person he is becoming! (we will still be very supervisory parents) But really, I can wait on the rest of them growing up. For the first time in 11 years we are not buying or washing diapers! Feels strange not to have a baby anymore. It is a new season of life I guess. But it feels very blessed!